Sunday, 11 November 2012

Surface Gallery invites artists from across the world to participate in our first exhibition of 2013, The International Postcard Show taking place from 15th January - 2nd February.

We are now accepting entries of original artworks to be exhibited alongside hundreds of local, national and international works. This long-running annual exhibition is an integral and highly popular feature of the exhibitions calendar at Surface Gallery, and will showcase the work of established artists, students and newcomers alike, celebrating the sheer diversity of practice to be found in international contemporary art.

Following on from the success of last year, we will be offering all participating artists the opportunity to exchange their postcard with another randomly selected artist at the end of the exhibition. We hope that this remote exchange will foster new connections and encourage ongoing communication amongst artists from diverse backgrounds and different parts of the world.

All works received with a completed application form before the deadline will be accepted and exhibited as part of the show. Artworks in any medium are welcome, but must fit the postcard-sized specifications of 4x6 inches with a maximum depth of 5mm.

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Surface Gallery is calling for submissions for the upcoming EM12 Show!Now heading into it’s fourth year EM12 is Surface Gallery’s annual
graduate exhibition, which brings together work from some of the finest
young creatives within the East Midland area. EM12 is a platform for
this year’s graduates to show new work and to engage critically with
each other as they work together to curate the show.
To be eligible applicants must be 2012 graduates from a university
within the East Midlands (University of Derby, De Montfort University,
Lincoln University, University of Loughborough, University of
Northampton, University of Nottingham or Nottingham Trent University).
The closing date for applications is Friday the 5th October.

Thursday, 23 August 2012

Surface Gallery would like to invite you
to Future Shots, a unique evening courtesy of Just Ask Nottingham!

Young people part of the Just Ask
project’s employment campaign organised an event called Photo Jam in the Market Square in May, asking young people what
motivates them. These young people were asked to write down what motivates them
onto a board and were then photographed. The project was inspired by a survey completed
in the Victoria Centre in October when over 1000 people were asked why so many younger
people were unemployed. Many felt that young people were unmotivated and many employers
did not see the value of having younger people on their team. This sparked
the idea of the “Photo Jam”
event as they wanted to show employers that there are motivated young people in
Nottingham. The photos have been posted on the Just Ask Facebook page and we held a competition for the most liked
photo / most inspired motivation. The top 30 most popular photos are to be
shown in the motivational event at Surface Gallery
on Thursday 30th August at 6pm – 8pm.

On the night, our young people on the
project will be performing their motivational speeches and canapés and drinks will
be served.

The young people would like to invite
you and your colleagues to come and support them on the night.

Thursday, 26 July 2012

International
Open Show 2012

8th- 25thAugust

Private
View: Tuesday 7thAugust, 6-8pm

The
International Open Show 2012 is Surface Gallery’s annual open
submissions exhibition. Now heading into its tenth year, the Open
Show presents the huge diversity of practice in contemporary art, and
provides a platform for emerging and established artists working in a
wide range of media.

The
works in this year’s exhibition were selected from a vast number of
entries from artists all over the world, and were chosen for their
original and thought provoking qualities. The nature of the Open Show
means that very different and sometimes opposing areas of
contemporary practice are brought together in a gallery environment,
generating an unusual narrative between the works and their audience.

On
the evening of the private view one artist will be selected as the
2012 International Open Show winner, and presented with the prize of
a solo exhibition at Surface Gallery in 2013. This is a big
opportunity for the winning artist, allowing them to challenge and
develop their practice outside of the group show context, and is also
an important part of Surface Gallery’s work to support the
development of emerging national and international artists.

Saturday, 7 July 2012

Surface Gallery is run as a co-operative by a team of dedicated volunteers.

Volunteers at Surface Gallery take a proactive role in running the
gallery, devising and delivering the exhibition programme, raising the
profile of the gallery and working to develop the gallery as a
significant resource. The organisation is keen to provide hands on
experience for people wanting to work in the arts. All volunteers help
invigilate the gallery’s exhibitions and assist with the day to day
running and administration of the organisation.

If you are interested in any volunteering opportunities download an
application form and return it to the Gallery. You will be contacted to
say that we have received your application form. You will then be
invited to an interview to hear more about the Gallery and to assess
whether volunteering is suitable for you.

For more information on the specific roles we are recruiting please visit our volunteering page Here.

Surface Gallery are currently one of three community groups competing
for a Community Matters award in the Trinity Square Waitrose. Each
month every Waitrose branch donates £1,000 (£500 in Convenience shops)
between three local good causes. Customers are given a green token
which they can use to vote for the cause of their choice (see here for
more information: http://www.waitrose.com/home/inspiration/community_matters.html)

Please vote for us! If we win, the award will go to our Community
Engagement team to help them extend the work they do with schools and
the local community.

Thursday, 5 July 2012

We are pleased to present the solo exhibition of our 2011 Open
Show winner Ting-Tong Chang, “Fallacies of Compositions”. The
exhibition will open on Wednesday 4th July 2012 from 6-8pm, with a
special private view where food and refreshments will be available. We
welcome all to join us for this event, which will be an opportunity to
meet the artist and preview the exhibition.
Ting-Tong, Chang, born in 1982, recently graduated from Goldsmiths,
University of London with a MFA in Fine Art. His artistic practice
covers both street art and elements of traditional painting and
sculpture with a strong interest in urban space and exploration of
potential dialogue between institution and individuals. Originally from
Taiwan, Ting-Tong lives and works in London, he has organised numerous
artistic interventions and events in the streets of various cities
across the world. His installations marked with brevity and absurd
objects get to the core of contemporary problems: globalisation
stimulated by the developments in technology, blurred boundaries
between nations, or the omniscient fear of terrorism which we have
already become accustomed to. Freely and with a wicked dose a black
humour, he toys with such concepts as death, war, or mass destruction,
which are ingrained in today’s world. Ting-Tong has exhibited and
received a number of awards internationally, including London, Berlin,
Warsaw, Miami, Hong Kong, Beijing and Taipei.

“Fallacies of Compositions” will be running at Surface Gallery until 21st July.

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

Valerie Turton has made it through to Culture Clouds top 101 finalists with the chance to exhibit her work at the New Art Exchange, but now she needs your help . . .

About the competition:Culture Cloud is an exciting new art competition, which
innovatively bridges the digital and physical art spaces to showcase
and discover new art talent from across the UK. The competition takes
part in 3 stages. In the first stage, a team of curators from the New Art Exchange
in Nottingham and its partner galleries, had the difficult task of
narrowing down over 900 submissions to the 101 works you can now see on
the Artfinder site.

Your votes will decide which 40 works will make it through to the 3rd
and final stage: the Culture Cloud exhibition at New Art Exchange. The
overall winner will receive a cash prize of up to £2000, a personal
iBook and the possibility of a future solo show at New Art Exchange.

How to vote for Valerie:
Visit her work on the Artfinder website, and follow the instructions... here.

You (our Surface followers ) are cordially invited too...

14th – 27th June 2012
Private View 13th June 6 – 8pm

This exhibition will be based on ideas of observation and perception, and brings together the work of Kate Brigden, Dylan Shipton and Pippa Gatty.

‘In identifying a constellation the decisive proof is to see how it
answers when you call it. More convincing than the matching of
distances and configurations with those marked on the chart is the
reply that the luminous dot gives to the name by which it has been
called, its promptness in responding to that sound, becoming one with
it’ Mr. Palomar (Vintage classics 1999 page 41)

‘Palomar’ takes it name from the 1983, Italo Calvino novel, Mr.
Palomar. Through the eyes of the title character, the reader goes on a
journey of mundane but highly individual and profound musings. Mr.
Palomar tries to explain and define his own existence by trying to find
order and reason in the complex and chaotic world around him, thus
highlighting the mind’s need to break the natural world up into neat
categories, so enabling us to understand how it is all put together.

Sunday, 20 May 2012

We are pleased to announce that the winner of our 2012 Photography Open
Exhibition is Nelson Guzmán Avellaneda who exhibited work from his
Deadline at Dusk series in our exhibition. We are looking forward to
working with Nelson in 2013 for the production and curation of his
prize-winner exhibition at Surface Gallery.

Release is Nottingham Trent University’s 16th annual Photography
Festival. As this year’s graduating class, we are proud to present the
culmination of three years of hard work and growth as creative
individuals. With a community of over a hundred students we represent
the multi-faceted nature of contemporary photographic practice;
something which is evidenced in the festival.

Thursday, 10 May 2012

The third week of our Testing Ground exhibition came and went with a great Closing Party.

With great guest performers and some amazingly evolved artwork Testing Ground seemed to be a huge success with the large audience who came to the Closing Party night.

Therefore we at Surface would like to send out a huge THANKYOU out for all the support we received and especially to the great musicians who shared there music with us at our Testing Ground Closing Party.

Would you like to be involved in a similar exhibition? Why not submit your artwork for our Open Show 2012, find our more at our website HERE.

Saturday, 5 May 2012

Open Show 2012 is Surface Gallery’s annual international open submissions exhibition, this year taking place from 7th - 25th August. Heading into it’s 10th successful year, the exhibition aims to investigate diverse contemporary art practice, providing a platform for today’s emerging and established artists. Submissions are welcome from artists working within any medium and there is the opportunity to submit up to 3 individual artworks to be considered for selection. Open Show 2012 is selected and curated by the Surface Gallery curatorial team and one winning artist will be selected by a panel of established Nottingham based artists and curators. The prize for the 2012 Open Show winner is a free solo exhibition at Surface Gallery in 2013 in collaboration with Surface Gallery.

Tuesday, 1 May 2012

We
are pleased to present Surface Gallery’s very first Open Show dedicated
solely to showcasing a selection of emerging and established artists
working within the medium of photography. The exhibition surveys a
diverse range of recent contemporary photography practice from seven up
and coming international artists currently based across the UK.

One
exhibiting artist will be selected to produce a new body of
photographic work for a solo exhibition in one of Surface Gallery’s
exhibition spaces in 2013. We are pleased to announce that Louise
Clement, Artistic Director of QUAD, Derby, will be assisting Surface
Gallery on the selection panel for this prize.

Invitation to Testing Ground Closing Party

Saturday 21st April 5pm-9pm

Testing Ground, noun; region resembling a laboratory in as much as
it offers opportunities for observation and practice and
experimentation.

You are invited to come and see how artist’s work for our
volunteer show, Testing Ground has developed over the past weeks; and to
join in celebrating the end of the exhibition.
There will be the opportunity to purchase work by the some of the artists.
In additional, there will also be live music from a range of artists such as:

Paul Buddle, who will be playing the electric guitar with projections.

Ciaran Harrington, playing the instrumental guitar.

Ruth Williamson and Eleanor Coleman, a violin and clarinet performance.

Tash and Beth, a guitar, harmonica and vocal duo, their influences
taken from traditional American rural music; blues, country &
gospel.

There will be refreshments and nibbles, including Pimms, cake and balloons!
We hope you will be able to come along to also celebrate Record Store
Day 2012 with us by bringing along some of your vinyls to play on our
record player!

What do you think to how our Testing Ground Exhibition is looking this week?We at Surface love the of progression so far, but there is also a lot of art work still being finished by each of artists ready for our exciting Closing Party finale this Saturday.

Friday, 13 April 2012

We are loving the collaberation for the front cover of Nottingham arts and culture magazine Left Lion with local graffiti artist Dilk. Even more so because the art work is in the Snienton area of Nottingham where we are based.

During the collaberation Left Lion and Dilk also got Polymathpictures involved to 'make a film that shows an artist and craftsman at work rather than just document the process of painting a mural.' Left Lion wanted to 'concentrated on the details - little things that an artist does to make their work their own.' and in return Polymath Pictures created a short film which in its own right became a peice of art.

We would explain how great the artwork and craftsmanship is, but we feel the video does that for us.

About:The Photography Open is Surface Gallery’s very first Open Show dedicated solely to showcasing the practice of a selection of emerging and established artists working within the medium of photography. The exhibition will survey new contemporary photography practice providing a platform for today’s talented up and coming photographers. The Photography Open is selected and curated by Surface Gallery’s Curatorial Team. One overall winner will be selected from the exhibition to receive a solo exhibition in one of Surface Gallery’s exhibition spaces in 2013. In collaboration with Surface Gallery, this will be an opportunity for the selected artist to showcase a new body of photographic work.

For more information on how to submit you are work please visit our website HERE.

Saturday, 31 March 2012

Testing Ground, noun; a region resembling a laboratory inasmuch as it offers opportunities for observation and practice and experimentation.
For the duration of the three-week exhibition Surface Gallery will be
transformed into a Testing Ground; a creative laboratory, whereby
participating artists will have the opportunity for practice,
experimentation and play. All artists will exhibit new work using the
exhibition specifically as an opportunity to test out a new idea,
artwork or strand of their practice. Testing Ground questions
the idea of the ‘finished’ artwork within the framework of an exhibition
whilst lingering on the nature of making and the ever important testing
and critical engagement process. As the artworks potentially evolve and
transform throughout the duration of the exhibition an ongoing
curatorial shift will take place between artworks and space.

Throughout March Surface Gallery was host to 'Beyond Belief' an exciting series of three short exhibitions and events in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University.

The exhibition saw students using a critical or reflective approach that
engaged with current debate surrounding curatorial practice. The Fine
Art students from NTU were invited to submit proposals and their
exhibitions explored notions of belief, truth, falsehood and the
difficulty in separating fact from fiction.

Each short exhibition; Slippery When Wet, Beyond the Suspension of Disbelief, and Shift Happens, held their own private view which each had a phenominal outcome and packed out the Surface Gallery space.

We were all very happy with how great all of the NTU artists made our space look and would recommend them and their work to any gallery in the future and hope they one day return to us with more artwork.

For more information on the artists and their work please visit our website here.

Monday, 20 February 2012

During the International Postcard Show 2012 we were pleased to welcome Sneinton C of E Primary School who visited us throughout the exhibition. Years 3,4,5 and 6 had lots of fun doing activities and making their own postcard artworks to hang in our interactive postcard corner!

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Last Tuesday Surface Gallery was proud to open its doors for our first exhibition of 2012 The
International Postcard Show.Curated by Surface Gallery, this long-standing
annual exhibition features 265 original artworks connected solely
by their 4” x 6” format. The show brings together works by established
practitioners, students, new comers and international artists from as far
afield as Europe and USA,
with each individual postcard acting as a celebration of the diversity in
practice and location of the participating artists.

Before the days of emails, Facebook, and
Twitter people would send postcards that time-travelled all over the world as a
way to 'keep in touch'. This year we have introduced an interesting interactive
aspect to the International Postcard Show as visitors, inspired by the
exhibition, you can create your own personalised postcard at Surface Gallery.
Come and write to loved ones, estranged friends, or your neighbours and get
reconnected by the satisfying process of writing and sending a simple postcard.

Our Family friendly exhibition will be open to the public untill Saturday 11th of Febuary, and these original artworks are also for sale throughout the exhibition, priced at just £15. An
ideal opportunity to discover up and coming artists and to buy some original
work for an affordable price.

For more information on our opening times and how to find us please click here.

Friday, 20 January 2012

The
International Postcard Show 2012

Open:
25th January – 11th
February

Preview:
24th January
6-8pm

Surface
Gallery is delighted to present the first exhibition of 2012 The
International Postcard Show. Curated by Surface Gallery, this long-standing
annual exhibition features hundreds of original artworks connected solely
by their 4” x 6” format. The show brings together works by established
practitioners, students, new comers and international artists from as far
afield as Europe and USA,
with each individual postcard acting as a celebration of the diversity in
practice and location of the participating artists.

Following the
success of last year’s very first Surface Gallery artwork exchange, all
participating artists have once again been given the opportunity to receive an
original artwork in exchange for their own following the completion of the
show. This unique aspect of the exhibition offers artists the chance to connect
worldwide through a random and remote exchange system. These original artworks
are also for sale throughout the exhibition, priced at just £15. This is an
ideal opportunity to discover up and coming artists and to buy some original
work for an affordable price.

Before the days of emails, Facebook, and
Twitter people would send postcards that time-travelled all over the world as a
way to 'keep in touch'. This year we are introducing an interesting interactive
aspect to the International Postcard Show as visitors, inspired by the
exhibition, you can create your own personalised postcard at Surface Gallery.
Come and write to loved ones, estranged friends, or your neighbours and get
reconnected by the satisfying process of writing and sending a simple postcard

About

Surface Gallery is an independent, volunteer run, contemporary art
gallery based in Nottingham that exists to support the professional
development of early and mid-career artists, curators and people
wishing to work in the arts.

The Gallery is keen to facilitate experimental and innovative work,
encouraging artists to explore new avenues in their practice.

The Gallery is constituted as a cooperative and managed by a management
committee. Volunteers working at the Gallery are split into
sub-committees to manage different areas of the gallery including
Exhibitions, Press/Marketing, Finance, Fundraising, Education and
Management.

Support us

Donate to Surface Gallery and your invaluable support will help us to:
Deliver an inspiring exhibition programme
Support the development of aspiring artists and arts professionals
Refurbish the Gallery space and purchase new equipment